THE KINDERGARTNER: Ansley Morris

Ansley Morris is all about chocolate. When she spots her mother, Amanda, stirring a bowl of chocolate-pie filling, the soon-to-be kindergartner doesn’t have much interest in discussing school.

“Once upon a time there was a little girl named Ansley,” says Amanda Morris. “And one day, she went to kindergarten. Then what happened?”

“Not doin’ it that way, Mama,” says the blond 5-year-old, whose mother has already cried because she’s so excited about Ansley’s new kindergarten teacher, Valerie Zimath.

But Ansley couldn’t be more thrilled about her future art class, where she hopes to take her passion for pastels to a whole new level.

“I make pictures and I really like pastels, ’cause I like to draw my garden,” Ansley says. “It’s got flowers and grass. It’s pretty — red and pink and white. I also draw the sunset.”

Although she admits to being a little shy upon meeting new faces, Ansley says there’s a chance she will present her homeroom teacher, Mrs. Zimath, with a new, blue pencil on the first day of school.

She pulls out her newly purchased Barbie nap mat, wiggles around on it, pulls it over her head and fakes a snore.

“I love my nap mat,” she says.

“Would you love it so much if it didn’t have Barbie on it?” asks her mother. “She’s got Barbie on everything.”

“I have Barbie movies!” Ansley says, trotting off to her bedroom to pose for a photo and show off her computer. Then she puts on a Julianne Hough CD. That gets her talking.

“Music from ‘Dancing with the Stars,’” she says. “They are really good dancers who teach the people who don’t know how to dance, and then those two are in a competition at the end and they choose a winner and get a big trophy.”

She switches CDs again.

“These are songs that we used to sing in my music class in school,” Ansley says. “I’ll have music class in kindergarten, too. I like to sing, but not all the time.”

She holds the CD up in the air.

“I’ve had this one for a really long time.”

With one last CD swap, circus tunes exit the speakers.

“I want macaroni on my first day,” Ansley offers.

A FEW OF HER
FAVORITE THINGS

• Reading
• The colors pink, blue and purple
• Vanilla
• First-place blue ribbon for her pastel picture
• Hot dogs and macaroni and cheese